The present invention relates to the art of compressor engineering and, more particularly, it relates to axial-flow transsonic compressors, preferably of the type incorporable in gas turbine plants.
The present invention is useful to utmost advantage in high-power stationary gas turbine plants operable with relatively high air flow rate, as high as 750 kg/sec and compressor shaft speeds of about 3000 rpm, the air at the intake of the compressor being under normal atmospheric pressure.
There is known in the prior art an axial-flow transsonic compressor adapted for incorporation in aircraft jet engines. The flow path or section of this prior art transsonic axial-flow compressor is defined by a housing of the compressor and a bladed intake stator structure, at least one transsonic compression stage and at least one subsonic compression stage, arranged within this housing in succession along the path of the fluid being compressed. The transsonic stage includes a transsonic rotor and a bladed stator strcture.
The subsonic stage likewise includes a rotor and a stator structure.
However, the prior art axial-flow transsonic compressor has not found practical application in high-power gas turbine plants, either stationary or mobile, because of structural complications and complications arising from the requirements of high reliability and long life combined with high circumferential speed and high capacity, as well as from the desirability of ensuring a high efficiency factor of the axial-flow transsonic compressor.